Tag: Premier

Today I tried a couple of different methods of importing XDCam HD422 into Premiere Pro CC directly from the PDW-700 camera. The latest firmware 1.83 on the camera and latest available version on all software. I used the same optical disc for all software, a dual layer disc filled with 13GB of data, 36 clips.

Method 1: The great, very simple to use, free XDCam Transfer. It has been rock solid for so long and I’ve installed it on so many producer’s laptops I’ve lost count. It took 25 seconds to add disc and get all thumbnails pictures! Full timecode display and option of audio channels to import and sub clip choice.

Method 2: The new Sony Content browser 2.2. This is the new all in one media importer set to replace XDcam transfer ( as well as EX clipBrowser, PDZ-1, PDZ-VX10) in importing MpegHD as well as handling all Sony formats from SD to XAVC 2k and QFHD.
It was very slow and took 1 minute just to add 10 empty clip boxes without thumbnail pictures. It took 4 min 15 sec!!! to get the 36 thumbnail with pictures to show up. Why its so slow I have no idea, especially compared to the already exitsting XDCam Transfer. I will check this with Sony and post back.

Method 3: Adobe Prelude. Couldn’t get it to work. Crashed 4 times.

Sooooo. My test ended early I saw no reason to import the footage. I tried 1 clip with the Content browser which seems about as fast as I know the XDCam transfer to be. But waiting 4+ minutes to get 36 thumbnails to show up is a no go for me. Imagine a full 50GB disc with 130 clips on it…

Also I am perplexed as to why Sony is charging €16 to buy a license. I agree €16 is nothing in comparison to other cost in this industry but more of a hassle. When I work with optical disc I always have a USB drive with the free XDCam transfer (or PDZ-VX10) with me, ready to install on a clients computer for logging purposes. Will I now have to BUY licenses for every time I want to do this?? I would rather see Sony give this software away for FREE and hope everyone installs it on every machine available, that way you can always view Sony content wherever you are… 🙂

There are of course other way of importing XDcam optical disc for editing such as the 1500 or 1600 deck or the PDWU1 or U2, which may work faster or better , but I needed to test from-camera-import.